Take A Knee || Anime: Naruto

Chapter eleven: Training

You pinched the bridge of your nose.

"This team really needs to learn how to shut their damn mouths," you muttered under your breath.

You were stand with your hands resting on the table, and didn't even bother to greet the three people who came barrelling in. None of them were very quiet when discussing the possibility of Zabuza being alive. And Kakashi really could've picked a better time to praise his team- Naruto's excitement wasn't something he contained.

Tazuna, his daughter, and his grandson had all cane in the room. And they each were certainly... characters. His daughter Tsunami seemed nice, but his grandson, Inari, was the biggest pessimist you had ever met in such a small body.

"Mom why did these guys come here? They're going to die. There's no way they can defeat Gatō, he'll slaughter them," You turned to face him, and the boy's steeling gaze struck you hard.

"Listen, you little brat!" Naruto jumped right onto his feet, fed up, "This is a great team of ninjas! And we're all going to be heroes! We aren't scared of this guy, 'Gatō'. At all!"

"There's no such thing as heroes," Inari frowned, his head low, "And no one can defeat Gatō- He's immortal: a god,"

A heavy silence filled the air. Not a fan of the atmosphere, you whistles.

"I'm gonna die one day," you pulled the attention in the room towards you. You closed your eyes, and smiled, "Life of the ninja, y'know? No day is set in stone. No confirmation that tomorrow's gonna come. And if you say I'm gonna go down 'cause of him, well kid," You opened your eyes and looked back right at him.

"Gatō's going down with me,"

Inari only scoffed, turning away from all of you. He stomped towards the door.

"If you want to live... then just go home," he almost seemed pleading, but it was more creepy then anything else.

On that note, he left. Tsunami scratched her head sheepishly and apologised for her son. You all apologised in turn, as well as thanking her for letting you all stay at her home. Kakashi was the last one to speak.

"Naruto, go cool off," he narrowed his eyes at the boy after speaking. You moved to see Sakura pinning a furious Naruto to the floor. You understood why he was upset, Inari must have really gotten to him. As he left the room to take a walk, Kakashi told the others to meet up for training in ten minutes. As they went their own ways, you spoke.

"Kakashi, I'm going to see if there's any messages waiting for me," you point up, implying that bird have been dropping you messages along the way. Kakashi nodded.

"Ten minutes," he smiled. You looked at him, and it took a minute to register.

"No. No, no, no. I am not training," you shook you hands wildly. Was he insane? He was having his genin train and drain their energy, he was completely out of it, you were the only defence if there was a surprise attack on Tazuna. His house wasn't exactly hidden.

"In that fight, [Y/N], you would've actually been able to handle him. But you lost your energy faster then normal. From only blocking- and a small attack," Kakashi kept his calm tone, and you sighed.

"Trust me, I've tried everything. I'm not getting any more stamina bars," though the words came out as a joke, you were more annoyed at that fact. You had spent months last year attempting to improve- to no avail. Eventually you had to accept the fact you simply didn't have a lot of Chakra or stamina.

"I'm not saying that you should try to get more energy, I'm saying you should try use it better,"

You looked at Kakashi right in the eye, before getting up. Your chair screeched as it went back. You shook your head at him.

"No. Not right know. Not while you," you pointed at him, "are basically unable to do anything. And not while they," you moved your finger towards the door, implying the genin who had just left, "are about to pass out due to chakra over use. Tazuna needs a line of defence. You really think Gatō doesn't know where he lives? For all we know he's waiting for us all to be drained of energy,"

"[Y/N]-,"

"Kakashi, I get you're just trying to help me. And honestly, I'm grateful. But not right now,"

Not giving him a second to answer, you left the room quickly. The cool air hit your face and filled your lungs. You stood there for a moment, taking in the surroundings. You would've fell to the ground against the wood grain door, had you come out to do nothing. Head tilting up, you eyes caught a glimpse of a bird. In an instant, you recognised it, though you wondered how it found you. Shrugging the thought off, you covered your face with your forearm. You snapped you fingers twice, before opening you palm.

A scroll landing in your hand. You grinned, saluted at the bird in thanks. It flew away, and you opened the scroll. Insuring no one was around, you began to read.

"[Y/N],

I presume you have arrived by now with team seven in the land of waves, despite your 'minor delays,"

You chuckled. Your last message back was hastily written after the Chunin ninja had attacked you. You didn't specify your minor delay, but you did assure him that it wasn't something they couldn't handle. You continued to read.

"It is a good thing to hear the Genin progressing at a good pace. However, we recently got word of a rogue killing many ninja's near that area. They have already taken down multiple genin, along with a few Chunin. He has even taken down some of our own ninjas. We currently have two very important nin travelling with some extremely classified information, and we have been told this ninja is targeting them."

Your heart sunk, and you silently hoped none of genin were your friends. Targeted nin? Hm...

"This is listed as an A-Ranked mission. Due to Kakashi being the nearest Jonin to where the ninja was last sighted, as well as where the two nin will be beginning their journey, he is naturally the one I will to assign this too.

Though I know the genin need their Sensei, I believe that you all should be returning home soon, having arrived at Tazuna's final stop. I see no issue in you leading them back the way you came, and Kakashi taking the mission.

I am entrusting you with this information. Let Kakashi know immediately. The file for these nin will be given to you tomorrow, in order to ensure that he has time to prepare his equipment.

That is all. Report as soon as you deem fit."

The symbol of the leaf was how the letter signed off. You muttered a curse that wasn't even legible to yourself. Kakashi was much to injured to go on this kind of a mission. The pay from an A Ranker though... you could really use the money...

You shook your head. What were you thinking?! You'd be killed on that kind of a mission. Besides, you didn't have the energy for it!

"The energy..."

That was all that was stopping you. In your crazy, stubborn, childish head. You glanced at your watch. Twenty minutes had passed. You ran to the field to spot Kakashi about to leave. Racing in front of him, you stopped him in his tracks

"I'm ready for whatever training you got!"